Shimla May, 1: While the Central government is targeting to eliminate Tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, Himachal Pradesh government has set the target for 2023 so that it becomes the first TB free state in the country. In Himachal, around 15,000 new cases of TB are registered every year, whereas around 9,000 TB patients seek treatment from the private sector.
A senior official from the health department said that TB is one of the diseases known since long and despite being curable, still remains a destructive epidemic and a major health problem worsening due to the increase in multi drug resistant (MDR) TB cases. He said it is satisfactory that the case detection rate and treatment success rate of Himachal is above the desired national-level.
He said that Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was implemented in the state in a phased-manner. Hamirpur was the first district to take up the activity in 1995, followed by Kangra at Dharamshala and Mandi in 1998, which are collectively called the first year districts. Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur districts started service delivery from July 1, 2000 and are called the second year districts. Out of the remaining six districts (collectively called third year districts), Lahaul-Spiti, Una and Kullu started the service delivery in the first quarter of 2001 and Bilaspur in the second quarter of 2001. The entire state was covered by January 2002.
The state government has already geared up for completely eliminating TB and has announced Mukhyamantri Kshay Rog Nivaran Yojna. Under the programme, one hospital, 12 district centres, 72 units, 208 microscopic centres for TB were functional in the state. Nine cartridge based nucliec acid amplification test (CBNAAT) machines have been installed in nine districts and four more such machines have been approved for Kullu, Reckong-Peo, Keylong, Rampur and Palampur.
An official said that the state had demanded four more machines for Shimla, Nurpur, Pounta Sahib and Nalagarh on need basis. The state received Rs 11.53 crore approved under RNTCP during 2016-17 and Rs 5.84 crore were released by the Centre for this financial year against which the state already spent Rs 7.24 crore. A total of Rs 15.79 crore have been proposed for the current fiscal.
The state has one of the oldest TB hospitals called TB Sanitorium in Dharampur, Solan. It has several components of RNTCP – TB patient ward, integrated regional laboratories, state drug store, TB training centre and drug-resistant TB centre. The official said that the national teams during their visit to the hospital recommended that it should be developed as ‘centre of excellence’ for TB control which will serve not only Himachal but the adjoining states too. He said Rs 5 crore additional funds have been demanded for its up-gradation.
